Is there an easier way to copy and paste sketch elements?

[fallenturtle]

I'm working on what will sort of be like a PCB, but I'm printing in with PLA and will be mounting the surface mount components on it. I'm working on the sketch trying to add circles where the holes will be. Each mount point is made of five circles like so:

I need to duplicate and paste this about 15 or so times. Right now I've been dragging a selection square around them to select the circles, doing copy and paste with the keyboard shortcuts, and dragging the copied from the original position elements over to the new location, and then doing it over again and its very tedious.

Like make it so I can click on the group of circles without having to do a drag and select and/or have it so when I do paste the new circles show up within the viewable area instead of always on top of the one's I initially copied?

Thanks.

[whittakerdw]

Create > Pattern. You have multiple options to choose from, such as rectangular pattern, circular pattern, and pattern on path.

[jeff_strater]

I would also question whether you need to duplicate these elements in a sketch.  Often, it is better/faster/more reliable to do geometry replication in the solid environment than in the sketch environment.  If, for instance, you need 3 smaller circles, or 5, you may need to replicate those changes in each of the 15 instances.  If those instances are captured in sketch, you may have to edit all 15.  If the geometry has been patterned in the solid environment, then you just need to change the geometry once in the sketch.

[g-andresen]

Hi,

Create holes or cylinders from the 5 circles and pattern this set (Features) rectangularly or circularly.

günther

[fallenturtle]

I considered patterns, but because the placement doesn't match any of the pattern options, I don't think it will work. To give a better idea of what I'm trying to do, here's another screenshot:

It's basically an old Commodore VIC-20 keyboard that I'm adapting to be a control surface for a musical synth, so there will be panel mounted buttons that will get pressed when a key is pressed. In the above image I scanned the PCB that was originally used and using it as a guide to create a panel to mount the switches and what not onto.

You can see I already copied all the places where I will mount the buttons, but then after all this I realized I wanted to make the center circle smaller (I actually only need the four smaller ones, the middle one is to help with making sure things line up with the prototyping. So ideally I'd create the 5 circles once, be able to duplicate and place them, and then be able to edit one and have all instances update. If I can do that with solids instead of a sketch, that cool too.

Thanks!

[whittakerdw]

I am unable to download the .f3d file and play around with it at the moment, but depending on how you'd like to go about it, you could use the hole command. Now seeing that you have all the sketches on the surface, you could use the "multiple holes from sketch" option at the very top of the hole option. From there, you can set the diameter, depth, and so on. The hole command is a very handy tool to use.